President Can’t Get to First Base in Texas

When George W. Bush, the President’s son, and several partners bought a majority interest in the Texas Rangers Saturday, he called his father, a first baseman during his college days at Yale, to discuss the deal.

“He kept talking about wanting to play first base,” the younger Bush said. “I told him Rafael Palmeiro is a heck of a first baseman, and he hung up.”

Wheel of a deal: Roland Hemond, vice president/baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, tells this one on himself after the valet parking attendant at his hotel in Miami brought around a car--a Lincoln. Hemond jumped in and drove farm director Doug Melvin to the ballpark.

“I got to the park, and I put the key in the lock and it didn’t work,” Hemond said. “I said, ‘Is this my car?’ I looked in the back seat and saw some baseball books, but I figured, ‘This is still my car.’ Then, I looked in the trunk and saw a briefcase that said Ron Shapiro on it. Then I knew.”

The car belonged to Shapiro, an agent. Hemond gave it back and retrieved his Chrysler.

“My first trade of the day,” he said.

Off the track: According to The Sporting News’ Stan Isle, eccentric Micheal Ray Richardson, a refugee from the NBA now playing in Italy, is described by the Italian press as “The Disoriented Express.”

Trivia: What major leaguer has played in 1,088 straight games--the sixth longest streak in history--and, barring injury, could pass Lou Gehrig’s record 2,130 in mid-1995?

Back to school: Lou Saban, 67, who was named to coach at Georgetown High School in Georgetown, S.C., last week, is begining his second stint in two years as a prep football coach.

Saban was at South Fork High, a rural school in southeast Florida last fall.

He has also coached the Boston Patriots, the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos, and in college he had coaching jobs at Northwestern, Western Illinois, Maryland, Army, Cincinnati and Central Florida.

Cardinal blues: Sound familiar? St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog seems to have a problem that Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda dealt with for several years--Pedro Guerrero. Herzog believes the key to getting along with the power-hitting first baseman is to feed his ego, but there are limits.

“You can make him feel important all you want, but he still has to get to the park on time and do the same things as the other guys,” Herzog told The Sporting News, alluding to Guerrero’s persistent tardiness.

“If he wants to go out and do it, Pedro can be as good as ever. I’ll tell you what, the Dodgers don’t have a hitter like Pedro.”

Add Herzog: He picks the Padres as the favorite in the NL West this season. “Jack McKeon is the luckiest man in the world to end up with (Jack) Clark and (Bruce) Hurst,” Herzog said. “Give Clark and Hurst to any club in our division (NL East) and they’d win.”

Whitey ought to know. Clark used to play for him.

Trivia answer: Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken. Note: He’ll turn 35 that summer.

Quotebook: Sacramento Kings Coach Jerry Reynolds, on management’s decision to trade his two top centers, Joe Kleine and LaSalle Thompson, without getting a pivotman in return: “If we had one more center, we’d have one.”